Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Victory

A leather-less ball for the NBA. As a vegetarian, this makes me really happy. That's the one thing about baseball that could easily be changed as well, and I hope they notice that the NBA has done this. I know people want to keep the baseball and gloves made of animal skin, for tradition's sake. But give me a break. Would changing the ball--and I'm sure they could make one just like it is now, only with no animal products--make more of a difference than juicing the athletes did (does)? Besides, they've messed with the ball before. Here's a chance to make every ball be exactly alike, and exactly the way the league wants it, once and for all. As for the gloves, there's nothing like the feel of leather...until you make something else that feels exactly the same! Do it, Bud!

This is stuff you've heard before, but I really can't understand the whole "cute" vs. "non-cute or tasty" thing. People have cats and dogs. They consider them family. They but freakin' T-shirts for them and send them to spas. They seem to love these animals...as they eat chickens and cows daily. Would they eat dog for dinner? If you're a meat-eater like I was for 25 years, you may see this as "Here we go again"-style, "bein' a dick" talk. But I seriously don't understand it. You can be healthy without other creatures having to die. People give this "I just don't care" attitude about it, like saying that "chicken just tastes too good for me to stop eating it and I don't care." I can see that about booze or junk food, because consuming that stuff, while it may be unhealthy for you, doesn't necessitate the mass torture and slaughter, if not just "normal" killing, of animals.

Note: I do allow myself to associate and mingle with those who do eat meat.

Wait, there's more. Some people will say, "it's just the way of the world, all animals eat other animals." Well, I saw a video of sharks gang-raping another shark, does that mean we should do that, too? If it's only natural for an animal to eat an animal, because that's what its brain and instincts are telling it to do, why isn't it natural for a human to choose not to eat animals because its brain has the ability to come up with that idea?

Wait, there's even more. I do eat eggs. So, am I a hypocrite? I guess so. I need to stop eating those fetal chicks, even though, technically, they're not a chicken until they're in the chicken phone book. But still, labeling someone a hypocrite doesn't make it any better that you support lots of killing compared to their support of a little bit of killing. Or something.

I think the decision to stay a carnivore becomes much, much more difficult when people actually learn about the conditions animals live in. From birth to death, they are in pain and miserable, tortured and mutilated and drugged.

I think people have this la-di-dah idea of where their meat comes from, pre-store, as some kind of cartoon where all the animals are hanging out and playing games. It makes it much easier to justify when it's some vague idea of a wise old cow, who's lived a happy life and is killed quickly and painlessly to provide sustenance for humanity.

I don't eat mammals. It's a choice. People think I'm weird because I am selective about the kind of meat I choose to eat. Vegetarians frown upon it because it isn't "going all the way" (I honestly don't have a lot of concern about the feelings of chickens or fish, though, for the record, I rarely eat either since I refuse to handle it at home.). Mammal eaters think anyone who doesn't eat meat has some kind of problem. It's clear that those on either side of the debate feel this need to "rescue" me and the other "almost vegetarian" types live somewhere in the middle of the debate. Ultimately, I believe in making personal choices without passing judgement.

It's true that if people knew how their meat went from a living thing to a styrofoam plate with plastic wrap, there would be a lot less meat eating going on.

Don't forget, though, that if you knew where most of your daily resources came from (non-food, I'm talkin), you'd probably weed a LOT of stuff out of your life.

Theo must agree with you, since the only reason I can see for resigning Timlin for $2.8mm is to keep him from spending the whole summer hunting defenseless animals with his bow and arrow. It certainly can't be to have him pitch.